Are you currently reading my blog, while being at work? Chances are that 1 out of 4 other employees are goofing off as well right now. 25 % of office time is wasted doing personal stuff like checking personal e-mail, chatting, using Facebook or reading news, according to several questionnaires. Since you are reading my blog, you are not wasting office hours; you are currently investing in future employee productivity enhancements, time well spent.

My conclusion is simple; you will with this knowledge get an easy head start of winning at the office, and creates a momentum that will get your results to the top in no time.

So what can you do?

• Do not check your private e-mails at work.
• Do not use your company e-mail for personal e-mails.
• Do not log on Facebook or other social media, unless you use it for work related issues.
• Create a MSN account for use at work, with only co-workers and professional contacts in it.
• Read news in the morning before work or/and after work.
• Use online banking service, instead of leaving the office.
• Do not play computer games, or online games. – What feels like one minute online, is five minutes in real life. Do not play even at breaks or at lunch hour.

If you manage to follow these few steps you will gain a upper hand on your fellow co-workers.

Real life example
I have been working at a call center since February 2006. Call center metrics has become a fascinating subject in my life. In this line of business we focus on seconds. Talk time, in between calls time, handling time, response time and time on breaks. All of these measured in seconds. So what do the best call center employees do? Let me show you some examples:

Agent A
Average handling time: 320 seconds
Average wrap up time: 30 seconds
Numbers of calls handled: 50

Agent B
Average handling time: 260 seconds
Average wrap up time: 45 seconds
Numbers of calls handled: 52

Agent C
Average handling time: 200 seconds
Average wrap up time: 25 seconds
Numbers of calls handled: 60

Which is doing the best job? At first it might seem that Agent C is doing the best job, handling 60 calls. Great job! But as a call center manager I have learned that looking at one number only will get you lost.

Lets add up their time:
Agent C has spent 3 hours and 45 minutes handling the 60 callers.
Agent B has spent 4 hours and 24 minutes handling the 52 callers.
Agent A has spent 4 hours and 51 minutes handling the 50 callers.

This means that Agent A has spent most time with the customers, and using most of this day effective.

Improvements: Agent A needs to shorten handling time. Agent B needs to shorten his wrap up time and improve time on the phone. Agent C needs to spend more time working.

These examples prove that improvements can be done.
If Agent C spends as much time available on the phone as agent A, Agent C will handle 17 more calls. An improvement of 28 % – Maybe we will find a lot of facebook activity at Agent C’s profile?

Lets debate
Some will argue that Agent C still does the best job, as she handles most callers, and Agent C deserve to have some fun in between. My experience is that that I agree to a certain point. The agents that are spending a lot of time available, feels that Agent C is goofing off leaving the rest to do the work. A mental change needs to be implemented at the office for a result only environment.
The point of this article is not to debate this either, but to show you that improvements can be done, and by eliminating time thieves you will be able to spend more time doing a great job. Imagine Agent C delivering 77 calls and the rest averaging at 50… Agent C would be a legend in no time.

Think smart, improve tremendously…

Tell me your worst story of wasting company time, or have you experienced great improvements by eliminating time thieves? Please share.

I have been reading again, this time about sports psychology. And I have been watching the TV-show “Air Crash Investigations”. So I have been thinking lately about what I am getting out of this. My mind is continuously returning to two things that keep grabbing the attention of my cortex, visualization and checklists. How can I use this in my job? And can you benefit from this in your job?

Visualization
To improve their own performance a pro athlete use visualization in order to imagine their own movements. How should they move their arms what does a great performance look like? I like the thought of bringing this into the office. How should a great day look? How should you close the sales? What does a great dialogue with a customer feel like? Can you picture yourself having a great day at work? What are you doing? What should you focus on, to get the outcome you want? After you have found out what a good day at work looks like, analyze it to find out the things that you contribute with and just do it.

If anything goes wrong, or for any other procedure you will find a checklist in aviation. I have been watching Air Crash Investigation on National Geographic Channel lately, and no I am not scared of flying. What I see in this TV show is all the work they are doing to prevent these things from happening again; it helps me feel more secure in a plane. So what can we learn? Checklists are a good thing. It will make sure that things run smoothly. Let’s bring this into the cubicle nation. Imagine that you hire someone new, have you ever forgotten something? Like providing stationary, or username for the local network or access to some program, or maybe even forgot to provide a desk? If you miss a thing or two, your first impression will suffer and you might see a drop in motivation. I got feedback from one of my employees that the first time alone on nightshift was scary, – Note to self, put into my checklist that I will be here the first time someone new is alone on night shift. It will never happen again, if you use a checklist.

Imagine someone leaving your company, have you made sure to shut down access to your customer database? Or to forward e-mail from their old address to the main address of the department or company? If a customer e-mails someone that left a long time ago, and they do not get an answer, your company is the one that suffers.

Imagine how you should have a great day at work.
And then write down the things you can do or influence. Voila you got your first checklist  

Writing a blog post about checklists and visualization; Checked.

The right focus is very important both for a coach and for an employee. Today I want to share a tip that I got from Henrik at my department. When you try to improve one’s performance, there is no need to spend time on the very best of them, as the reward would be too marginal. There is a saying that focusing on the 60 % in the middle will be the most efficient, as they can improve greatly and have the ability to do so, the bottom 20 % also require a lot of management and coaching to maybe have just marginal improvement. I do not agree on the latter, and have experienced firsthand that people have exploded out of the bottom 20 % to the top 10 %, but I agree that it might be coincidental, still do not live black and white on this rule.

When you need to coach someone, you’ll also need to know what to focus on.
That is why we drew this chart at the white board today. The horizontal axis shows the person’s ability, the further to the right the more abilities. The vertical axis is determination, the will to succeed, further to the top, the stronger determination.

We placed all employees around the chart. And it will help us figure out who needs what kind of attention.

(a,b,c) is the group that just need a smile and recognition. Tell them that they do a great job, and leave them alone for now.

(d,e) is the ones that really want to succeed but they do not quite get it all. These people need more training to improve ability.

(f,g) are the ones that have the ability but lacks motivation. These people need to be motivated.

(h) is in this case in need of both motivation and training, demanding a lot of work from you. You might consider replacing people that falls into this group.

The danger of no attention.
(f,g) be aware if the ones with abilities lack motivation. If you lack motivation and determination you’ll end up falling behind on new information, and slowly glide to the left, ending up with too little abilities.

(a,b,c) will without recognition and a smile end up falling downwards to end up with no motivation, having the abilities.

(d,e) depend on getting more training and making progress, without it they will also be falling downwards ending up with no motivation and lack the abilities. That is why you should first focus on this group of people, as they might end up in a place no one would like to be in.

(h) if you have people in this category that lack both abilities and motivation they will most likely just be noise in the work environment, frustrating all the others. If you cannot move people out of this category fast and easy, move them out of the office.

Coaching, motivating and teaching.
So with this tool you will be able to identify who needs more training, focus on them first. The next thing you as a coach should do is to put your motivational skills to the test and motivate f and g. In the meantime do not forget about a,b and c, it takes no effort to praise them. If you have a lot of people in the lower left you might be in trouble. Good luck, hope this helps you to prioritize. Where would you place yourself?